S r ening the ax for AMON&
By GORDON ATCHESON was called to testify before the
WASHINGTON - Until the af- Senate Watergate committee.
ternoon of July 16, 1973, he was During his testimony that af-
just another faceless federal ternoon, Alexander Butterfield
Bureaucrat. dropped a nuclear bombshell on
Before going to the Federal Richard Nixon's imperiled fort-
Aviation Administration that ress with the announcement that
March, he was a White House he president had tape recorded
aide, an innnocuous middle-level his Oval Office conversations.
paper pusher. In any event, he Those tapes and the bitter
The Michigan Daily
Edited and managed by Students at the
University of Michigan
Wednesday, July 23, 1975
News Phone: 764-0552
Wheeler ig nores puic
MAYOR AL WHEELER'S display of back-room, power
politics at Monday night's Council meeting did little
to enhance either his political integrity or his stead with
city voters. By trying to railroad a resolution through
Council that would establish door-to-door voter registra-
tion procedures citywide, Wheeler showed his contempt
or ignorance of the citizens' mandate of last .April which
shot down a door-to-door charter amendment during the
city elections.
The Daily believes such a procedure, if handled
equitably, would do much to ensure that a maximum
number of Ann Arbor residents would have a say in the
city's affairs and who should conduct them. Yet we do
not feel the procedure justifies the mayor's betrayal of
the trust placed in him by the city electorate.
MAYOR WHEELER MADE no effort to set up a public
forum before introducing the resolution;a hearing
was scheduled only after his tactic ran into heavy flak
from Council itself.
If Thursday night's move is any indication of
Wheeler's attitude toward those who put him in office, it
might be a good idea to keep a close eye on the mayor,
lest he make a practice of letting his own whims take
precedence over the wishes of local residents.
legal battle to get them,'finish-
ed Nixon off or at least forced
pis resignation and probably
would have landed him in t h e
Alink had not Gerald F o r d
interceded.
After making his startling re-
velation, Butterfield drifted back
into the bureaucracy and was
not prominently involved n any
subsequent Watergatery.
But suddenly, last week, he
was back in the headlines when
the rumors began to fly that he
had been working for the Cen-
tral Intelligence Agency during
his years in the White House.
THE SENATE committee in-
vestigating the CIA has come-
up with no evidence indicating
that Butterfield was a CIA
agent, according to a statement
released last week by panel
chairman Senator Frank Church.
There has been very little -
if any - fact to support the al-
legation, and Butterfield has vig-
orously denied it, saying that
the charge has severely dam-
aged his reputation.
Butterfield left the govern-
ment in January and went into
private business, but according
to a close FAA asociate, he "was
driven out."
And the same people who
pressured him at the FAA are
the ones pushing this story about
him being a CIA operative, his
former co-worker claimed over
dinner.
"The rumors about the CIA
and Butterfield cametfrom Nix-
on people who want to see But-
terfield ruined," he. said. "They
think Nixon might still be in
office, if nobody found out about
Letters: Lo
To The Daily:
I THOUGHT that you might
be interested in a memo I wrote
to some people within the Uni-
versity of Michigan. It speaks
to the needs of many people in
our community, and a problem
Butterfield
the tapes, and Butterfield spill-
ed the beans."
THE MAN'S opinions w e r e
just that - opinions. He offer-
ed no hard evidence to support
his theory abot' the "hatchet
job" being done on Butterfield.
Still, he positively said t h at
Butterfield was never an em-
ployee of the CIA or any other
covert outfit,
"No, I'm absolutely sure he
didn't work for them," he de-
clared. "Alex's problem that he
was too honest . .. he could only
tell the truth and when he says
he's not a CIA agent, I believe
him."
Of course, this guy didn't
know for sure. And what better
person to have inside the White
House than Butterfield, who had
access to the Oval Office 'apes.
Thus he could monitor the pre-
sident's most important meet-
ings and telephone calls.
While the thought that the CIA
might indeed have its claws in
such high places as the Execu-
tive Mansion is disturbing, the
alternate theory - that ardent
Nixon backers are smearing
Butterfield - is equally discon-
certing.
IF THAT is the case, and ft
seems plausible, one wonders
where THEY will draw the line
- simple whispering campaigns
or maybe far worse.
Who is on their list? Wood-
ward and Bernstein, Leon saw-
orski, and Elliot Richardsan.
And who, in fact, are "they?"
Reportedly, Jeb Stuart Ma-
gruder, after pleading that he
would never do bad things like
dirty tricks again, began gather-
ing defamatory information
about people who had helped
cause Nixon's downfall.
Those allegations were never
substantiated, either. It just
may be that everyone is a bit
paranoid after all the dirty
laundry - Nixon's, the FBI's,
and the CIA's - that has been
washed in public lately.
But considering what did go
on secretly, it's not hard to "a-
agine that Alexander Butterfield
is being slandered as revenge
for what he said on that after-
noon three years ago.
Gordon Atcheson is co-
editor-in-chief of the Daily,
working in Washington as a
summer intern with, Knight
Newspapers.
W on the job ladder
'1-4Er CO',e.%-uP (COwntINuE)
that seems to be growing rather
than diminishing - discrimina-
tion in employment:
I was just reading the article
in the Michigan Daily on 'U liit
for Failing onhAffirmative Ac-
lion." It hit home wilth me.
I am a secretary in the Uni-
versity and have seen discrim-
ination, sometimes ever so sub-
tIe, as when my professors have
assigned routine work to female
part-time students employees
and thought-provoking work to
male part-time student employ-
ees.
I have been involved in the
hiring of a research assistant
and an assistant professor. Little
effort. was made to search out
qualified women or minorities.
The lists of qualified women are
available for use, but they cost
money; maybe the Affirmative
Action Office should pay those
fees. No women applied for our
assistant professor job. Snce
we made a half-hearted effort to
check women's clearinghouses
for qualified women existedI for
the job. We will soon be hi-cog
a man.
I BELIEVE that the women
are there but have not been
found. They were probably fun-
neled into research associate or'
other job ladders instead of onto
the professorial job ladder.
I believe that there are many
qualified women right within the
University job family w- are
completely overlooked when a
better job opening comes up.
The University Affirmatine Ac-
tion Office needs to become in-
volved in gathering information
on women and minorities and
their backgrounds and interests,
and then making the information
available to professors and oth-
ers so that these people can be
upwardly mobile.
It is obvious to me that this
must be done by one unit within
the University, so that seople
can go to one well advertised,
well organized location to find
women and minorities who
might be able to fill a parti-
cular job.
I have been a secretary within
the University for a few years
and will be leaving soon. I went
to college so that I could be
something other than a sezrc-
tary. I want a job that offers
me challenge, a chance to feel
proud, and a chance to earn a
good salary. I never thought that
after college I would be working
for 12 months and earning $7,-
848.00, and feeling little prid2
is myself.
I FEEL that the Unive -sit,
has taken more from me than
it has given me ,in return. I
know that many others feel the
same way. Many of us are in-
terested in getting better jos,
but have not been creative in
our approach to job-hunting We
easily fall into the University
clerical, or other low-level lad-
der, and then are dissatisfied
and do not know how to gat out.
People 'applying for clerical
and perhaps other low-level jobs
need to be given job counsel-
ing and a survey of ther real
interests before they are given
a typing test or an inte.view.
There is no good reas-tn for
keeping qualified, bright or mo-
tivated people from upward
mobility in the job families.
-Name withheld by request
July 18
Portugal
To The Daily:
IT IS RATHER odd to have
everything protested about 0n
campus except the fall of social
democracy in Portugal.
-Inez Pi1k
July 20
1~